You aren?t raised in York-shire and spend 25 years as a professional cricketer without realising what a hard game this can be.

And Worcestershire coach Steve Rhodes had to accept his second successive County Championship defeat in charge by gritting his teeth and putting on a brave face.

It was hard enough that the Rhodes era should have started three weeks ago with such a ridiculous, freakish defeat at Leicester. But for the Bradford-born former England wicket keeper to then see his adopted team beaten by his native county was an even tougher burden to bear.

And to have new overseas signing Shoaib Akhtar sat on the New Road pavilion balcony watching Worcester-shire fail to knock over York-shire?s last four wickets yesterday morning only added to the frustration.

Yorkshire would argue, of course, that the absence of one of their overseas stars Ian Harvey - so often a thorn in Worcestershire?s side - was an equally big factor.

But Shoaib?s unavailability due to a calf strain was effectively the difference between the teams.

And, as far as the fate of promotion-chasing Worcester-shire?s season is concerned, a lot now hinges on how quickly they can get him fit and ready for four-day battle.

?It would give us an enormous lift to have him back for our trip to Northampton next week,? said Rhodes. ?But his first target is to play in Sunday?s game with Glamorgan.

?He?s as frustrated as anyone.

?He sits there on the balcony and sees the lads toiling, with the opposition five or six down and he knows that?s his time, when he can make a big difference.

?When he played his three games for us in Twenty20, he hit the 95mph mark and we?re looking forward to him having a few opposition batsmen in difficulties.

?He?s desperate to get out there, as his goal is to win us Championship games. And that?s one less he hasn?t played in. But he?s having to be patient and it?s not proving very easy for him.

?It?s not a serious calf strain. But if it had worsened, he might have ended up only bowling two or three overs and where would that have left us?

?It was a sensible choice to leave him out. It?s just so frustrating as on that wicket, he?d have been lethal.?

With Nadeem Malik not feeling 100 per cent, Shoaib not there and Zander De Bruyn simply not good enough, it left captain Gareth Batty with precious few resources to play with yesterday morning.

The stand-in skipper might have been tempted to try and apply a bit of pressure by bowling himself and putting a few close catchers in. But, in fairness, he had been more than encouraged enough by the way Matt Mason and Kabir Ali were beating the bat early on.

Needing just 46 to win when they resumed yesterday morning, Yorkshire had added just eight runs when Ismail Dawood was undone by Mason?s extra bounce to give Jamie Pipe a catch behind. But, despite a few close calls as both Richard Dawson and Tim Bresnan played and missed, the visitors kept their heads.

It took just 49 minutes for Dawson to reach his half century with the winning four. And, to add insult to injury, having already missed out badly on when they were bowled out five runs short of a fourth batting point on Friday, Rhodes? men were also to be hammered for having a slow over rate of -4. The umpires? failure to take Sunday?s baking hot conditions into account meant the harsh loss of two more precious points, leaving Worcester now just 1.5 points ahead of fourth-placed Yorkshire, who have a game in hand.

?I?m not too down or too disillusioned after a game of county cricket as good as that,? said Rhodes. ?A couple of our batsmen might have gone on to get more for us in the first innings and Richard Dawson?s innings was crucial when the pressure was on.

?But we were just not quite good enough and we?ve got to nail it home on the final day.

?We?re still top three and I?d still back our squad as good enough to win promotion.?